7th Heaven is one of those television series that I never go out of my way to watch. If it happens to be on and nothing else looks exciting, I'll watch it. My point is that 7th Heaven is far from what I would actively want to watch. Even into the first episode of season two, I wasn't really expecting very much. However, before I knew it I couldn't stop watching. While nothing really "big" happens in an episode, I have found that watching the Camden family sort of their problems (and others) can be very exciting. However, it does have its limitations.

For those who are not familiar with 7th Heaven it is a melodrama that revolves around the Camden family. Each episode takes a look into their life as the characters struggle to right some wrong and at the same time, learn a few valuable lessons. The main characters include Reverend Eric (Stephen Collins), an outright do-gooder, Annie (Catherine Hicks), a loving mother, Matt (Barry Watson), the oldest son who struggles to find his place in the world, Mary (Jessica Biel), an all-star basketball player who is suffering from an injury and self-esteem issues, Lucy (Beverley Mitchell), a young girl that is still learning about shopping and boys, Simon (David Gallagher), the young brother who has just started middle school, and Ruthie (Mackenzie Rosman), the youngest child who is still learning about the various facets of life. Despite that one of the main characters is a minister, the series isn't about religion at all, but rather the trials that the family members go through and their individual quests to right wrongs.

Typically, the plots can come off pretty corny and seemingly, many of the characters come off as nosy (they're always butting into other people's business, whether or not they want help.) Some of the drama seems to be taken way out of proportion, as if such a small trivial thing is the end of the world. However, for a young adult in the early years of high school, such a thing like a young stud named Jimmy Moon breaking up with you (Lucy in this case) for another girl can be the end of the world. We all know that at a young age it is truly difficult to properly gauge the severity of life issues. Even so, there are several things occur in the episodes that the adults seem to take out of proportion. Part of the problem is that in a given episode, they are attempting to take important life lessons and fit a bunch of them into a television hour, which is difficult. While the point gets across, it still comes off slightly unrealistic and a bit overplayed. However, it is important to note that this overplaying gives the series the necessary emotions that makes it easy for you to connect with the characters and truly care about what is happening in their lives.

Some of the 'life lessons' addressed in this series can add an interesting facets to the series. For instance, in most episodes Ruthie is always trying to understand life to a certain degree. She is young, impressionable, and always questioning why certain things are. I find this to be a cute and interesting aspect of the series. For instance in "See You in September", Ruthie gets in trouble for wearing her baseball cap backwards in class, because it makes her look like a gang member. She goes on a small quest to understand why. Ruthie also gets the opportunity to learn about hate, money, friends, and so on.

Other issues are a lot more serious. In "I Hate You", there are several important lessons to be learned. The most important is that the episode addresses the Holocaust. A fictional character plays Elisabeth Mann who is a true survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and tells her story to Simon. Towards the end of the season there is an episode about safety, where Lucy learns an important lesson about dangers of riding in cars with inexperienced drivers. There are also important lessons with Mary learning to have faith in herself, improper teacher/student relations, drugs, teen pregnancy, suicide, cheating, stealing, and plenty more.

Overall, I was pretty happy with this season of 7th Heaven. It's one of those shows that I enjoy watching, but never seem to go out of my way to do so. I think that this second season is one of the series' better ones. Its approach with the diverse perspectives can be fun and the episodes leave you feeling good, while rolling your eyes at the same time with a 'I can't believe how corny that was' feeling.

The DVD

Video:
The video is given in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame color. The video quality is pretty good and offers a fairly clean picture. There is a grain and minor compression artifacts. However, there is nothing that should interfere with your viewing experience.

Audio:
The audio in this release comes in two languages English and French. Its format is 2.0 Dolby digital stereo sound. The audio track is mainly dialogue driven and sounds good. There is very little distinction between left and right channels. This release is support closed captioning.

Extras:
There are no extras provided with this release.

Final Thoughts:
Initially, I wasn't expecting to be stunned by the second season of 7th Heaven. It is the kind of show that I don't mind watching if it's on. However, I found that the second season was a lot more gripping and exciting than I expected. While the acting feels a little overplayed and the situations are blown out of proportion, it's just that that makes it entertaining and fun to watch. Despite that I enjoyed this season I don't see it as having high replay. For that reason, it's entertaining enough to sit through once. Rent It.